I guess i can consider myself lucky. I got my scepter after 69 solves.

Special circumstances however - I farmed archeology when the guild perk Bountiful Bags increased the droprate of keystones significantly. (and sometimes you got two in one artifact gather) So it did take me less time to solve them being able to cap out my keystones on every single solve.

Originally Posted by Daxxarri

I admit to having a nice diabolic cackle now and then, but it's not like I'm sitting in front of a bank of monitors each filled with an angry forum thread, stroking a siamese cat and telling my henchmen that they've failed me for the last time. (Source)

One of the few times in wow i got lucky with a mount i really really wanted. I got it very early on even before they made any changes to make archeology easier. It was all I rode ground-wise until the day I let the account expire.

Like many people say, its great to Solve in Pandaria as you can box them and sell for a descent fragment rating (5-9x Fragments per box I think it was).
+ You'll get close to the Achievements (Solve 20x of Different Panda Items). That is if you care for achieves ofc.

After finding out about the battle tank mount i really put forward the effort this past weekend. I am at 63 Solves 3/6 Rares including the Crawling Claw and no mount. I am going to continue the way i have been doing it the last two days which is Pandaria crate grind. I did the normal Kalli digsite grind up to 40 then found out about crate grind. Also found out the "Seeker of Knowledge" title was available to archaeology profession is a nice title i do not see much.

Edit: Also i would like to add every crate i have turned in normally gets 5-12 fragments of Tol'Vir. Also a couple hieroglyphic's along the way as well.

Like many people say, its great to Solve in Pandaria as you can box them and sell for a descent fragment rating (5-9x Fragments per box I think it was).
+ You'll get close to the Achievements (Solve 20x of Different Panda Items). That is if you care for achieves ofc.

This is exactly what I'm doing. I'm currently languishing at ~40 Tol'vir solves and neither the pet or the mount have come up. At least I did get the ring while it was current content I guess.

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.

If you haven't trained in Pandaria archaeology you can do all your dig sites in just the Jade Forest collecting tons and tons of crates prior to leveling to 600 so you can turn them in. It is WAY FASTER this way.

Started tol'vir grind in MoP decided the crates and the 30+ achieves would make the grind more bearable. Each.... solve hurt I was reaching 100 losing hope then went into my 16/16H clear raid on tuesday and solved one. To my surprize my 101th solve was the mount Ii actually finished mount before i got my final pristine I was working on. Hell I got BOTH of those before i got 20 walking canes...

I am glad as hell that I got the mount on my second or third Tol'vir solve. I am of the opinion that they should add archeology items like the new Mantid one that causes digsites to always belong to that race. I don't think there's a lot of people out there who find it fun to travel between multiple spots over a whole continent multiple times in a row just for a chance at getting a digsite for the race you want, to get a random amount of fragments from each dig, to solve an item so that you have a random chance at getting the item you want in project, only to begin the process anew. In the case of the Sandstone Drake recipe, it's yet another RNG element in "does the canopic jar have the recipe inside?".

I realize that a game of this nature needs RNG. But I feel that archeology just goes beyond the limits of the RNG a profession should have. They have mentioned during Cataclysm that they'd like to let the players more easily control which race they want to focus in. Now they're introducing this feature for the Mantid, and only the Mantid. I realize PTR is PTR and that things may change, but I honestly feel like they won't be doing the same thing for the other races, which they should do.

On the bright side, archeology is still not the most boring profession ever in the game. That "honor" is reserved for fishing.

Last edited by Adramalech; 2013-02-03 at 09:12 PM.

Originally Posted by Tya

As a warlock, allow me to be the first to say that I get tremendous amounts of joy from watching fear pathing take you to Africa.

Originally Posted by Drayarr

Twinking is like going back to school when you are 30, just to be smarter than the other kids.

im at 250+ solves thats just tolvir not the 500+ nelf i had to go thru to get this far i have gotten every thing from tolvir but the scepter
got all the nelf rares
all the fossil rares
the 1 orc rare
missing 1 troll rare (big suprise tho right)
missing 2 dwarf rares the staff and the pet
already have my professor title
ive watched every episode of futurama, full metal alchemist, game of thrones season 1 and 2, ronin warriors almost all of walking dead season 1 and 2 thats finishing up as i type now. im gonna start the indiana jones movies ane hope it helps my chances
its so frustrating so many 12-15 hour days of digging holes all day for like 11 days straight now
i offically have scepter depression
i see someone said 360th solve so thats my next goal point

When Cata came to a close I had stopped searching for Arch rares a while before. At that time I had 3 of the Tol'vir rares, none of whom were the mount.

Then in MoP, I started going for Arch again, mostly for the achieves and of course the "find all the Pristines" that would come with it eventually. I just turned all my results in for Tol'vir relics. The mount was the next rare I found.

Overall I'd say, between 200 and 300 Tol'vir solves? Maybe? But especially with Mantid Arch, I think my strategy is worth thinking about. Lots of others are doing the same thing.

hit 300 solves and was ready to give up
had three nelf digsites north and a troll site to the east
went and did the troll site
tolvir popped after ward did that
another troll
another tolvir another tolvir
had 200 frags solved a few
more tolvir
had 12 keystones
on solve 310 GOT IT!
almost gave up when i was just 10 solves away
just keep digging gents
it will break you